Leeville seeks cultural designation

Thursday

Feb 14, 2013 at 8:51 PM

As the long-anticipated public boat launch in Leeville nears reality, community supporters have set their eye on a new prize for the area.

Xerxes WilsonStaff Writer

As the long-anticipated public boat launch in Leeville nears reality, community supporters have set their eye on a new prize for the area.An effort spearheaded by a nonprofit group is attempting to have Leeville recognized as a Cultural District through the state Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism. The designation must be applied for and comes with various tax incentives for businesses in the district. “The designation is crucial because you have to start somewhere in letting the government and your people recognize Leeville as something valuable and not a lost effort,” said Janet Rhodus, who founded Launch Leeville to improve the small town south of the levee on La. 1. Rhodus lives in Baton Rouge but owns a home in Golden Meadow and has been fishing in Leeville since 1991. Her background is in commercial real estate, and her organization has received no money from the parish. The Lafourche Parish Council will vote on a resolution granting permission for the application at its Feb. 26 meeting. If the vote is favorable, an application will be submitted to the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism. That office evaluates an application on several criteria, including being distinguished by cultural resources that play a role in the life, economic and cultural development of a community. The other criteria focus on artistic, economic and community-development factors. There are 63 areas with the designation, including the nearby Grand Isle & Grand Cheniere Caminada Cultural District. Terrebonne Parish has the Houma Cultural District as well. The designation is specifically for areas with a high concentration of “cultural facilities” that “serve as the anchor attraction.”For Rhodus, those facilities are everything dealing with the fishing industry in Leeville.Areas with this distinction are subject to tax breaks on the sale of art and rehabilitation of structures. Rhodus said she has been in contact with local and state officials about various potential improvements in the area, including a sidewalk that would run from the new La. 1 bridge to the boat launch. “My goal is to make Leeville the Leeville fishing village,” Rhodus said. Parish President Charlotte Randolph said while Leeville's precarious position outside the parish's flood protection levees means robust industry will not return, the area can find its niche as a fishing attraction. “Leeville is very representative of the early days of Lafourche,” Randolph said. “The focus was on fishing, and Leeville was a launch site. (Launch Leeville) seeks to preserve that heritage.”Randolph said she is open to inexpensive ways to develop that niche such as designating parts of old La. 1 that see little traffic because of the new bridge as roadside-fishing areas.Councilman Daniel Lorraine, who represents the area, said the soon-to-be-built boat launch in Leeville is the first step to attracting more visitors to the outpost in the marsh. The recently completed elevated La. 1 bridge in Leeville causes much of the traffic to bypass businesses in the area, Lorraine said. The boat launch will be situated at the southern end of Leeville and will revitalize those businesses. There are multiple private launches in Leeville, but Rhodus said those fill up quickly, lack parking and can be costly for regular fishermen. “People do not want to park their $50,000 truck and trailer on the side of the road,” Rhodus said. “You do not want to spend an hour launching your boat. They can go somewhere else without a hassle.” Officials hope the new launch will be complete this year. The project was tied up in a debate about how much wetlands the parish would have to mitigate for building the launch. The total cost for the project is about $1 million. The parish has dedicated $250,000, the Greater Lafourche Port Commission has dedicated the same amount and the rest is being paid for by a grant, Randolph said.The launch will include a sidewalk and could possibly include a pavilion and a handicap-accessible fishing pier. The timeframe for including those items depends on the contractors' bids, Randolph said.